You Belong With Me
by stanzaic
Summary: When a new female stable hand arrives around the same time as Denise McCaskill, it quickly becomes clear that Red O'Malley is in demand. And also caught in the middle.
1. Chapter 1

The first sign that anything new was going on was the sound of gravel crunching in the driveway. Half the riding class at Pine Hollow Stables looked toward the entrance, several of them managing to catch a glimpse of a black Honda Civic. The car was so shiny it looked extremely out-of-place.

Max Regnery cleared his throat loudly. "Pay attention!" he ordered, although he'd been looking toward the car as well. The riders nodded and refocused on the situation at hand; most of them did, anyway. Veronica diAngelo could be heard whispering loudly to whoever would listen.

"That girl's outfit is _so_ out of style," she hissed. Max shot Veronica a frosty look, and Veronica smiled brightly back. Stevie Lake, Carole Hanson, and Lisa Atwood exchanged glances that clearly said they dealt with Veronica for much longer than any of them liked, and the other girls in the class, Polly Giacomin, Betsy Cavanaugh, and Meg Durham, simply ignored Veronica.

But Carole was rather curious about the car, and the next time she passed the door out to the parking lot she craned her neck to take a quick peek. There was an older girl standing beside the car; she looked to be in her late teens, but not quite twenty. Carole saw nothing wrong with the girl's outfit, though she wasn't quite a fan of the dark colors, as she preferred sunny yellow and light shades of blue to brown and black. Then Max called out for Carole's attention, and Carole's thoughts left the girl in the dark colors.

The girl closed the car door gently, luckily for the riders in the lesson; if she hadn't, most of the horses would have spooked at the sound. This realization made Lisa think that the girl had been around horses before, and the girl's outfit made Lisa think that, too. She was wearing knee-high Dublin boots, distressed skinny jeans, and a black T-shirt, more appropriate for the barn than even Veronica's outfits. The girl walked into the barn, out of view of the lesson, and the thirteen-year-olds in the lesson went back to paying attention.

The barn was empty, for the most part. Max's mother, Mrs. Regnery, fondly known as Mrs. Reg, was in the office, and the stable hand Red O'Malley was busy cleaning out a stall at the end of the hall. The girl knocked on the door of the office, and Mrs. Reg called, "Come in!"

The girl entered. "Hey," she said, without a smile. "I'm Joey Redwood."

Mrs. Reg looked mildly surprised. "_Oh_!" she said, chuckling. "You spoke to Max on the phone, correct?"

"Yeah, a couple of weeks ago."

"Then you're the new stable hand," Mrs. Reg mused. "I'm sorry, but I was quite sure that Max was looking for another college boy to hire." Mrs. Reg appeared almost apologetic; she added, "Those men! They want to stick together, you know."

Joey folded her arms. Mrs. Reg thought uncomfortably that either Joey was oblivious or she was too stubborn to take the hint. "I had a cold when I spoke to him, so my voice was deeper. My full name's Joanna. Anyway, is it still all right if I work here? I've worked with horses before and I'm just as capable as the hand cleaning out stalls right now."

"It's a lot of work," Mrs. Reg warned.

"I can handle it."

"We just have to convince Max of that now," Mrs. Reg muttered. She looked back up at Joey with a smile. "Well, I'm sure you don't need any help finding Red, you've already mentioned him! You can ask him for a job, I'm sure there's something you can do."

Joey nodded. "Thanks," she said before exiting the office. Mrs. Reg watched Joey go, wondering about her. She'd seemed rather distant and cold, even angry. Or perhaps she was snobby. But the comparison of a snob to a stable hand made no sense, and Mrs. Reg dismissed the subject, going back to sorting through the piles of paperwork on her son's desk.

At the end of the hall Joey stopped outside the stall the hand, apparently Red, was in. "Hi," Joey said. "I'm supposed to ask you what to do."

Red looked up and grinned. "Are you the new hand?" Joey nodded wordlessly. Red straightened up, still grinning, and walked over to stand in the doorway of the stall, leaning against the side. "I'm Red O'Malley, currently the lonely stable hand of Pine Hollow Stables. Max's been looking for another hand for a while."

"Yeah, there was an ad in the paper," Joey said. "I'm Joey Redwood. The lady in the office said Max wanted a guy and he ended up with me."

"How did he think you were a dude?"

"I had a cold, and I only talked to him on the phone, and I go by Joey. But seriously, what's there for me to do? Looks like you could use some help cleaning these stalls."

Red shrugged. "Guess you're right. You can start in on the next stall over, but we won't be able to finish the rest of them until the lesson finishes. After they untack their horses, we can take the horses out, and then we'll clean the stalls. After that we've got to feed the horses out in their pastures, and after that we'll have to -"

"I get it!" Joey said, holding up her hands as if Red had taken a swipe at her. "I get it, I get it – there's a lot of work to be done." She sighed. "I'm assuming the pitchforks are somewhere at the end of the hall."

"Got that right."

_Well,_ Joey thought as she headed to the back of the barn, _at least I only have to do one stall._ She wandered around, feeling lost and a little stupid, until she found the pitchforks hanging on the back wall. She snatched up the red one, grabbed the nearest bucket, and headed back to start on the cleaning task.

It was quiet while Joey worked, and after working for a good five minutes in silence she found herself humming. Embarrassed, Joey quickly stopped, hoping Red hadn't heard her. The last thing she needed was another guy to tease her about something. She already had her brother for that.

But Red poked his head into the stall with a smirk. "Don't want to bother you or anything, but I could've sworn I heard some humming."

Joey said the first thing that came to her. "No, it was…" she trailed off, and swung her finger around, trying to find something alive in the stall other than herself to put the blame on. The only thing she saw was a rather nastily large spider, and when she saw it, she stopped. Red snickered, and Joey blinked, realizing that she had just blamed humming on a spider.

"Wow," Red said slowly, raising his eyebrows. "I was going to tell you I liked the song, too, but I'll have to go and learn Spider-ese before being able to tell the hummer themselves."

"Oh, you know the song?" Joey said, dismissing Red's Spider-ese remark.

"Yeah, Linkin Park."

Joey was impressed. When she'd heard that there was another stable hand, she'd immediately pictured a farm boy with overalls, a piece of straw sticking out of his mouth, and freckles, not to mention a major Rascal Flatts fan. She raised one of her eyebrows, thinking that Red was, if at all possible, the opposite. He was wearing regular jeans, had nothing sticking out of his mouth, and was tan instead of freckled – and apparently, he was a Linkin Park fan. Maybe working here wouldn't be so bad after all. "Name the song," Joey demanded, as she finished ridding the stall of manure, dumping the last load into the bucket.

"_A Place for My Head_," Red said. "You've got to try harder to trick me with such a simple one like that. Now, if you really want to try and catch me, you'll have to go with a less known one, like _Cure for the Itch_ or _Wake_."

"Well," Joey said, starting to admire Red, "looks like I can't catch you anyway." She smiled faintly at him and walked out of the stall. "Where do we put these lovely gifts?"

Red explained, and soon enough they were heading out to spread the manure around the nearest field. It took more time than Joey would've liked, considering this was her favorite pair of shoes, the smell of manure wasn't exactly her favorite smell, and she had to help Red with the manure he'd removed from other stalls earlier.

When it was finally finished, cars were pulling into the driveway and out of it. Joey looked up, wiping sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. She must have looked quizzical, because Red explained: "The lesson's over, they must've finished untacking the horses. Parents, you know."

Joey wasn't about to admit that no, she did not know, so she quickly changed the topic after letting that one relax for a few minutes. "Folks, we have a very special guest for you tonight."

Red laughed, and both of them walked back to the barn together, carrying three or four emptied buckets each. "I'd like to introduce…Mr. Hahn!"

Joey smirked. They reentered the barn, and Red handed Joey the buckets he'd been carrying. "You can get on turning the horses out, I have to finish up out there. Spread the stuff around with the tractor."

"How do I know where to put them?"

"Ask Max or a couple of the girls from the lesson that just ended, I'm sure they'd help, and you have to meet Max sometime." Red grinned at Joey before turning around and heading back out. Joey looked around, wondering what to do. She decided that she ought to put the buckets away first, and once that task was finished, she found herself loitering awkwardly by the office.

She didn't want to interrupt whatever was going on there, the door was closed, and the voices inside sounded very official; so when Joey saw a group of young girls passing by, she stopped the one closest to her. "Um, hey," Joey said, trying to pass off the idea that she was eighteen and had to ask little girls what to do, "I'm supposed to turn out the horses, but I don't know which ones go to which pasture."

The girl Joey had asked, an African-American girl, smiled. Joey noted that everybody here had a habit of smiling. "Oh, I'll help! I'm Carole, and these are my best friends Stevie and Lisa. Are you the new hand?"

_No, I'm only trying to get you to tell me where the horses go so I can tell my friend who steals horses,_ Joey thought irritably. _Joey, stop it, she's only trying to be nice. Besides, she's like, ten._ "Yes, I've heard that Max thought I was a boy and that's why he hired me."

"You? A boy?" asked the blonde girl, apparently Stevie. Joey decided to take Stevie's surprised remark as a compliment.

"Yeah," Joey said, and proceeded to explain what she'd already had to explain twice that day. "I had a cold when I talked to him on the phone so my voice was hoarse and deeper, and I go by Joey. I've never seen him in person. In fact, I still haven't yet, I've been taking orders from Red."

The curly-haired girl, Lisa, let out a sudden loud and unnecessary giggle. Stevie looked at Lisa inquiringly, and it seemed they were on some alien brainwave together, because abruptly Stevie was chuckling, too. Joey shifted her weight from one foot to another, unable to shake the feeling that they were laughing at her.

Carole rolled her eyes good-naturedly at her friends. "You can talk to Max first, we can start taking the horses out."

"Are you sure?" Joey didn't know if that counted as shirking her duties or not. Carole nodded encouragingly and walked off, Stevie and Lisa trailing behind her. Joey watched them go for a few seconds before heading to the office.

A well-dressed woman was just exiting, another young girl following her. "But Mum!" wailed the girl. Her mother cut her off and started to shout at her, and the arguing duo yelled at each other all the way out.

Joey tried not to stare and entered the office. "Hello," she said, forcing on a smile to try and look more friendly. She needed this job, and she was going to have it, even if she had to fake her way through it. "I'm Joey Redwood, your new stable hand." She stuck out her arm.

The man with curly blonde hair stared at her hand dumbly for a few seconds before tentatively reaching out and shaking it. "No offense, but I thought you were a boy."

"It's fine, I had a cold when I talked to you."

"And you didn't bother trying to clarify…?"

"No. Shouldn't matter."

The man nodded slightly as if conceding to that point, and he said, "Well, as you obviously already know, I'm Max Regnery. It's nice to meet you. I assume you've been taking orders from Red."

"Yep."

"Good, he'll have you doing some real work." Max winked, and Joey snorted, thinking that he was trying a little too hard to be friendly here. She wouldn't even resort to winking as an attempt to be friendly; she'd always thought of winkers as creepy. "Does he have you on a job right now?"

"Yes, I'm supposed to be taking out the horses. I didn't know where they went and I hadn't met you yet, so Carole, Lisa, and Stevie are helping me out."

Max laughed. "They have a way of doing that. Helping out, I mean. But they can be just as much trouble as help from time to time, remember that. Now get back to work before Red thinks you've abandoned him."

_Well,_ Joey thought as she left the office, _that went better than expected._

* * *

><p><em>Greetings, fellow <em>Saddle Club _readers! I used to read these books all the time when I was younger. We just recently got new carpet upstairs, meaning we had to move everything out of upstairs, and in all the madness I found my old books again. I've gotten back into them, obviously. (; I'm a fan of Red, which is also another obvious point, and you may think this story is a little off kilter because I've never seen the show. But that is, of course, why this is categorized in books! ;D Now, I love all constructive criticism, and please do warn me if Joey starts sounding like a serious case of Mary Sue. I hate them. Mary Sues, I mean._

_And I hope I have no real need to mention that I don't own this._


	2. Chapter 2

The following morning, Joey woke up at six. It took her a good ten minutes to drag herself out of bed, as she was used to waking up between seven-thirty and eight; but when her thoughts touched on Pine Hollow and the horses, not to mention the people, she hastened to her closet.

Joey lived in her own apartment on the fringes of Willow Creek, Virginia, closer to Whitmire Academy than anything else. That was all well and good, because Joey was planning to attend Whitmire in the fall. She'd heard only good things about the college thus far and hoped it was manageable.

"Come here, John," Joey said aloud, reaching for her toothbrush in the bathroom once she was dressed. She had a bad habit of naming half the things she owned: her ancient black Razr was Trace, her Dell laptop was Charles, and her iPod shuffle was Calvin. She vaguely remembered annoying the daylights out of her parents, referring to everything as if it had personality.

Joey finished up quickly, but when she'd grabbed her tote bag of essentials for the day and her car keys, someone knocked on her door. Joey furrowed her eyebrows, wondering who it could possibly be. "Hello?" Joey asked, swinging open the door. Mr. Baxter was standing in the doorway holding a clump of official-looking papers; he was the owner of the apartment complex. "Hi, Mr. Baxter."

"You have to go through these and sign them," Mr. Baxter said gruffly, shoving the papers into Joey's hands. Joey barely spared them half a glance, thinking that she could complete the forms later. Mr. Baxter raised one of his grey caterpillar-style eyebrows. "I hope you remember those papers, Ms. Redwood, because if you don't I'm afraid we won't have any agreement at all."

"I won't forget, Mr. Baxter."

"Good." Mr. Baxter gave Joey one last intense look before hobbling off. Joey watched him go for a few seconds, wondering how many wars the old man had been in and why he was limping. Maybe he had some epic story about it – he struck her as the type to have all sorts of tall tales stacked up for rainy days.

Joey left the papers on the counter in her little kitchen before exiting, locking her apartment door behind her. On her way out to the parking lot, to her car (affectionately named Freddie), she saw a couple of people that looked to be around her age. One of them she recognized – he'd been taking a tour around Whitmire's campus the same day she'd been. She might have said something if she'd actually spoken to him before.

The other person she saw was a girl, and she looked irritated. She was stomping around outside the complex waving her arms in the air and yelling into her iPhone. Joey hoped that this girl was not someone she'd have to share classes with, and after thinking about this, she hopped into her car and started for Pine Hollow.

Pine Hollow was a twenty-minute drive, which was shorter than Joey had expected. Once she arrived at the stables, she stepped out of the car, softly closed the door behind herself, and headed inside.

There was a whole new flock of people wandering around, doing various things. _How are they up this early?_ Joey thought, stifling a yawn. She noticed that these people looked older than the girls from before and decided that maybe they came here before going to school or something; maybe they were high school sophomores or juniors. Joey decided that they definitely looked like they could drive themselves wherever they had to go.

Joey found Red stepping out of a little office she hadn't noticed the day before. "Hi, Red," Joey said, raising her hand in greeting. "Question: is there any place to put this stuff down, or do I have to leave it in the tack room?"

"You can leave it in there," Red suggested. "There's a chair in the corner you can put your stuff on." He smiled slightly at Joey before walking away, and Joey entered the office.

The office itself looked more like a bedroom than an office; Joey didn't miss the sleeping bag and pillow on the floor behind the small desk, and there was a laptop sitting open on the desk. A guitar case was propped up in one of the corners, and in the corner opposite it, there was the small chair.

Joey wondered if Red lived here. It didn't sound that crazy. Joey wouldn't mind living here – she was used to the smell of horses and was to the point where she thought it was a good smell. Besides, Red wouldn't have to pay rent each month like Joey did. Joey wished enviously that she'd thought of this plan before Red had. Maybe then Red would be getting up early and driving here and putting his stuff down in Joey's office/bedroom.

Back out in the barn, the riders were tacking up and heading to the indoor arena. Joey paused to watch for a few minutes, envious again. She'd wanted her own horse for she didn't know how long, but here she was, on her own and without a horse. She recalled the times she'd used to daydream of herself in the type of getups only the wealthiest horseback riders put on, and after relishing the memories for another several seconds, Joey started toward the main office.

Joey was passing by the tack room when she heard her name being called. "Joey," said Red, from inside the tack room. "Hey, Joey!"

Joey turned and walked into the tack room. The second she stepped inside she was met with a wall of leather – the smell of leather, anyway. She took a deep breath, enjoying the aroma. "Yeah?" Joey asked. There was a girl standing near Red; she had choppy black hair and a perfectly sloped nose. She was also quite tan. Joey, on the other hand, had dark red hair, but it was red all the same, and that was the reason she was always sunburned rather than tanned. "Um, hi," Joey offered. "I'm Joey Redwood."

The girl tossed her choppy black hair, and all the layers glistened perfectly. Thus far, everything about this girl was perfect. She was even outfitted in hunter-green riding breeches, knee-high black leather boots, a white collared button-up, and a navy blazer. Was there anything about this girl that _wasn't_ perfect? Joey was suddenly reminded of a line from her favorite book _Twilight_ about Rosalie – Bella, in her narration, had commented on how every girl who was in the room Rosalie entered took a hit on her self-esteem just by seeing her. Joey felt the same way. "Hi," said the girl, in a chirpy and nearly nasal voice. "I'm Denise McCaskill. You've probably already heard about me."

Joey bristled. Great, so Denise had a unique name, perfect physique, and was totally egocentric. "Sorry, no," Joey said, a little terser than she probably should've been.

"That's right, I forgot," Denise said, her voice distinctly cooler. Joey wondered how Red could possibly be missing this. He was just watching them interact with a dumb grin. Maybe he was trying to fake pleasantry so a true verbal fight wouldn't break out. "You're the new stable hand. Max has been telling the riders in the lessons about me. Unless you're in Horse Wise and missed a meeting…"

Joey didn't know what Horse Wise was, and nor did she care to know; she only cared that she was wasting her time getting worked up for nothing. What could she do? Apparently this McCaskill chick was way high up in Max's sights, and since Max was Joey's boss, there was quite literally nothing she could do. Joey shrugged, keeping her expression neutral, and looked to Red. For half a second she thought she saw a shadow pass over Red's face, and his grey eyes spoke of something other than his stupid grin; but then it was gone and Joey wondered if she'd imagined it. "What do I need to do?"

"Well," Red said, "I've got the feeding down, and since you're new you won't know which horses to give what; so you can stay in here and clean tack."

Denise opened and closed her mouth, looking like a fish out of water. It occurred to Joey that perhaps she wouldn't be the only one in here cleaning tack. "You said there was a lot to do, Red," Denise all but purred, touching Red's shoulder. "I'm sure Joey will find something else to do."

Red frowned, mumbled something about having a job to do, and quickly left. Joey tried not to laugh at the expression on Denise's face. "Want to get started?" Joey asked, forcing herself to try and be nice. Apparently Red liked Denise, too – except when she purred at him – so Joey thought maybe she was only judging this book by her cover. Maybe once she got to know Denise, she'd actually be quite nice.

Joey snorted at the thought, and Denise shot her a Look. This Look was one of clear loathing. "Don't laugh at me," Denise snapped. "_I'm_ the one who should be laughing. How old are you, twenty? And here you are, working as a stable hand."

"Um, Red's my age," Joey pointed out, considering making a break for it. "He's a stable hand, too."

Denise scowled and left, evidently unable to think of a suitable comeback. Joey stared at the doorway for a few seconds, wondering what the heck was wrong with Denise McCaskill. Then Joey decided it was time to get to work.

* * *

><p><em>Hello again! (: Thanks for my one review! :D Please offer any constructive criticism you have, and if you don't have any, review anyway! :) Haha, thanks for reading, people. And tell me if Joey sounds like a Mary Sue so I can rework whatever part sounds Mary Sue-ish. Thanks!<em>

_I don't own this. (This is a website named Fanfiction. Emphasis on the **FAN**.)_


	3. Chapter 3

The time passed swiftly, and by the end of the week Joey had nearly memorized all the important things to remember at Pine Hollow. For example, there were the pastures she was somehow managing to keep straight, and which horses could be led out at the same time and which couldn't. She wasn't quite so fortunate when it came to remembering which feed went for which horse, so Joey left that job all to Red.

On Saturday, there were several new arrivals, including a large shipment of hay bales, a new horse, and another new stable hand. The one Joey most preferred to be with was the new horse, because not only was it hard for her to carry the hay bales around, the new stable hand was incredibly lazy. The thing he was best at was slouching around looking mutinous.

Denise McCaskill was also someone that was hanging around on Saturday, although she had very little reason to be at Pine Hollow. Joey hoped to avoid the girl, as she had no desire to be verbally abused, and whenever Red suggested that Joey take up some job with Denise, Joey made up an excuse about needing to call someone and wandered off to call her brother Sam. She'd already called Sam twice today to get out of working with Denise, and she knew that soon she'd be needing to leave messages on his answering machine, since he had a summer writing class this afternoon.

Thankfully and unthankfully, Joey was saved from having to be anywhere near Denise by none other than Jake the new stable hand. "Hey," Jake said, loping up to stand beside her. "How's it going? There are some people hanging out in the lounge."

"Uh, okay," Joey said cautiously. "Aren't you supposed to be helping with the hay bales?"

Jake shrugged lopsidedly. "So?" When Joey didn't respond, he added, "I'm heading to the lounge, if you wanna come." Joey would have much rather swallowed an entire pitchfork than go anywhere with this lazy Jake kid. How old was he, fifteen? Argh, in any case, it was either stay here until she was forced to help Denise with something, or go with Jake.

_A rock and a hard place,_ Joey thought. _Maybe I could take a sick day. Say that all these people are making me sick._ She smirked slightly at the thought, and saw that Jake was still waiting for a response, his eyebrows raised. _Wow, you think you're hot stuff,_ Joey thought. "No thanks," she finally managed. "I think I'll stay here."

Jake frowned at her and slithered off. Joey wasn't sorry to see him go, but she was sorry that within the next ten minutes she'd already been asked to help Denise finish clearing space for more hay bales to come in. Joey couldn't find a way out of this one, so she took a deep breath and headed up to the hayloft.

Denise was sitting on one of the hay bales, looking incredibly bored. "Oh," Denise said when Joey came over the edge of the loft, "it's you." Joey bit back a retort – it hadn't been much of a good comeback, anyway – and started to shift the hay bales around in an attempt to make more room. Denise simply stared at her, and Joey found herself speaking before she could shut herself up.

"What is your problem?" Joey demanded, straightening up. "What the _heck_ could you _possibly_ have against me? I've only been here for one week and it's like you've hated me all your life!" Joey drew in a cleansing breath, then added, "Now can you _please_ help me move these hay bales around?"

Denise was sneering. "If you have to ask, I guess it's not worth it," she said airily. "I don't feel like moving hay, thanks, so I'll be on my way." With that, she pushed past Joey and hurried down the ladder. Joey watched as Denise promptly exited the barn, only pausing to say goodbye to Red.

Joey reached up to adjust her ponytail. She really could not understand this. Had she said something offensive? Joey couldn't shake the feeling that she was in the wrong, and by the time she was finished moving the hay bales around and attempting to pile a couple on top of each other, she had herself convinced that she had seriously offended Denise. But how?

She wondered if she ought to ask Red. He knew Denise better than she did, it seemed, and although Max apparently knew Denise as well, Joey had no wish for Max to see any insecure side of her. There were also the three helpful middle-school girls, but Joey didn't want to involve them in this, they probably didn't know what hate _was_ yet.

_Then again,_ Joey reflected ominously, _there are a lot of things kids know that they shouldn't these days._

Joey climbed back down the ladder, and when she turned around, she found herself face-to-face with a short, annoyed girl. "Ex_cuse_ me!" burst the girl, looking absolutely livid. "_I_ asked for Garnet to be exercised!"

"Um, okay," Joey said slowly. "Who'd you ask?"

"Red! But he won't do it! So you'd better get to it next time, or else!" Joey realized dumbly that this girl was the one that had been following her well-dressed mother out of Max's office on Joey's first day here.

Joey wanted to give this girl a proper tongue-lashing but refrained. "Okay," Joey repeated. The girl huffed angrily and stormed off. Joey gazed at the floor for a few seconds, utterly bewildered. Was that Garnet's owner? The poor horse. Garnet was very nice to lead, and probably even nicer to ride, given she was being ridden by a legitimate rider.

Joey's thoughts were suddenly interrupted. "Having fun yet?" asked Red as he walked up to stand in front of her, wiping his hands on his jeans. "That was Veronica diAngelo, by the way. She's always yelling at whoever will listen."

"Yeah, I got that feeling," Joey muttered. Veronica diAngelo also had a way of looking down her nose at people, as if they were specks of dirt to be brushed away – and Veronica diAngelo could also make people feel like they actually _were_ that small and insignificant. Joey shook the notion off and tried to smile at Red. "Got anything else for me to do?"

Red checked his watch. "Yeah, go eat. You've been here for hours." He grinned, and for the first time, Joey noticed faint dimples. For some reason that thought made her blush, and Red blushed back.

Joey had to think of how ridiculous the both of them probably looked. Red's name was, well, Red, and his face was flushing red; Joey had red hair and _her_ face was flushing red. They probably looked like a pair of lobsters. "Are you going to eat? Should I go out and pick something up, like Subway or something?"

"Yeah, sure." Red hesitated. "Do you know where a Subway even is?"

"…no."

"Wouldn't want you to get lost," Red teased. "Well, you just tell me what you want from there and I'll pick it up. I'll ask Max and Mrs. Reg if they want anything, too."

"Don't forget Jake."

Joey could've sworn that she saw a look of disdain pass over Red's face, but then again, she'd always had trouble reading people. "Not possible to forget him," Red mumbled. "What do you want?"

"Six inch turkey on Italian with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and mustard." Joey smirked. "Are you going to remember all that?"

Red shook his head. "Nope. That's why I'm going to write this down." He pulled his cell phone, which looked like a Chocolate v3, out of his back pocket and started to type into it. "I'm going to text myself."

"Wow."

And because she had nothing else to say, Joey saluted Red and walked away. Apparently there wasn't much left to do at the moment, so Joey took a deep breath in preparation and headed for the lounge.

* * *

><p><em>Greetings yet again, and review with any constructive criticism you have, please. (: Thanks for reading, and warn me if Joey's a Mary Sue!<em>

_I don't own this._


	4. Chapter 4

Of course, going to the lounge required seeing Jake, and seeing Jake required an amount of patience that Joey rather lacked. She soon found herself sitting across from him at a table, wondering what the heck she was doing there. Jake even had a couple of middle-school girls clearly obsessed with him, one of which was none other than Veronica diAngelo.

Once Joey saw this, she made her excuses and quickly jumped ship. She had no idea what had possessed her in the first place to bring her to the lounge; she knew Jake was an idiot, and she knew Veronica was an idiot, and idiots usually had some strange sort of attraction to each other. Maybe they were like homing pigeons and had built-in devices in their brains that made them "home" to each other.

_Dear Lord, deliver me now,_ Joey thought in all seriousness before heading toward Max's office, to ask for something to do. However, when she glanced in, she saw that he was on the phone and flicking through a stack of papers at the same time, looking very official. She sighed and turned away. She was swiftly finding that she hated not having anything to do.

Joey decided to check up on the new horse yet again. She headed in the direction of Applejack's new stall, suddenly and strangely feeling as though she was about to start whistling. Joey realized she had a song from _Nightmare Before Christmas_ stuck in her head just before she peeked into the Thoroughbred's stall.

"Hey, buddy," said Joey slowly. Applejack was rapidly walking in circles, tail swishing, looking quite erratic. She wondered if this was normal for a horse that had just been moved. If she were a horse, she would probably be feeling a little out-of-place after a move, too. "You okay in there?"

Applejack whinnied as if responding to Joey. She winced at the frantic sound. _There's probably nothing I can do to help the poor guy,_ Joey realized.

She sighed noisily. "Sorry, buddy," Joey told Applejack, before retreating to the tack room. Surely there would be some dirty tack for her to clean. Unfortunately, all that Joey saw was shiny clean leather in the tack room – and a medicine cabinet. She made her way toward the medicine cabinet, hoping that some reorganizing would be welcome; and when she opened the cabinet, she thought that no matter what she did to it, it probably could not be as bad as it was right now.

Joey started to pull all of the bottles and bandages and tubs out, placing them on the floor, thinking that she could organize them on the floor later. She made it all the way through the lowest shelf by the time that Red returned with the food.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Red when he walked into the tack room, swinging a Subway bag. "What's going on in here?"

"Well, there was nothing else to do, so I decided to reorganize," Joey explained. The moment she was done speaking, her stomach growled. "Kindly toss me my food?"

Red reached into the bag and pulled out Joey's sandwich. He gently tossed it in her direction. As she caught it, she suddenly added, "Hey, how much was this? I'll pay you back for it." But Red was shaking his head. "What?" Joey asked, confused.

"You don't have to pay me back."

"Are you kidding? You live in a barn," Joey answered. The second she finished, she wished she hadn't. Red looked torn between hurt and annoyed. "Look, I'm sorry," Joey said awkwardly. "It kind of just…came out. I don't even know where it came from."

Unfortunately, Red's facial expression had yet to change. Joey winced. "Hey, Red?" He glanced up, eyebrows raised expectantly. Somehow it was a completely different look than Jake's of earlier. "I really am sorry."

Joey decided that she was done apologizing, as she really was sorry and really had told him so, and put down her Subway on the second shelf. She began to carefully place everything back into the medicine cabinet, wondering if Red was going to say anything to her or if it was going to be extremely awkward between them for all time now. _This is why I don't say anything,_ Joey thought irritably. _I usually just end up speaking before thinking._

She glanced back. Just fantastic – Red was MIA. Joey had to resist the very tempting urge to smack her head against the cabinet door. And then, as she thought about it, for absolutely no reason at all, it occurred to her why Denise McCaskill disliked her so entirely much. Denise's reason started with a capital _R_ and ended with an _ed_. How had Joey been so _stupid_ not to have seen it earlier?

Were Denise and Red dating? Was that why Denise was so angry with Joey? That wasn't Joey's fault – she only showed up for a job at, apparently, the completely wrong time. How on earth could that be her fault? Joey made a mental note to have a talk with Ms. McCaskill the next time she came around.

Joey sighed as she leaned back, examining her handiwork on the first shelf. Satisfied, she picked up the sandwich and walked over to sit on the counter with the least clutter covering it, and a few moments later, she started to eat. Joey was halfway through the food when she remembered to say grace, and after she quickly thought a prayer, she heard someone clearing their throat in the doorway.

She looked up and saw Red. "Red," she blurted automatically, her mouth half-full of food. Joey reddened and looked back down, swallowing before continuing. "I – er – I finished the first shelf of the cabinet."

Red gave her a ghost of a half-smile, looking over at the cabinet in question. "I can see that," he said, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "Looks pretty good."

"Thanks," said Joey. She wondered what to say for a second as Red bit his lip, looking like he was wondering the same thing. Finally, Joey said, "Look, I really am sorry about earlier, I sometimes forget to think before I speak."

At the same time, Red said, "What you said earlier doesn't really matter, everyone says something about that eventually anyway."

Joey and Red stared at each other for a second, and then in the same moment, they laughed uncomfortably. "So…did you get that?" Red asked. "I got what you said."

"Yeah, I think so," answered Joey, now wondering how she was supposed to go about eating her food without making herself look like a complete and utter fool. She probably had mustard on her face already. Running on that thought, she swiftly wiped off her face, just in case.

Red stood there for a moment, hands now in his pockets. Joey peeked up at him. Denise was one lucky woman. Red had to be the nicest person Joey had come across in she didn't even know how long. Plus, he was freaking adorable. _Wow,_ Joey thought. _Did you really just think that? Back in high school now, are we?_ Although she had to admit, that was really the only way to describe the guy. And, as if things weren't awkward enough already, Red caught her looking at him and blushed.

It was the first (and last) time Joey had ever been grateful for Jake to walk in. "Hey, that dude with hay bales has to leave," said Jake, completely oblivious to the situation he had just entered. "We gotta get the rest of those?"

"Uh, yeah," Red said, stumbling over his words. "Er, Joey, you almost done?"

"Yeah, totally," Joey said quickly, thankful that God had kept her from stuttering as well. She crammed the last piece into her mouth and hopped off the counter. Unfortunately, she was not as graceful with her feet as she was with her words, and she tripped on her way to the door. Who else was there to catch her and set her upright but Red? And, of course, he snaked his arm around her waist to catch her.

_How do you spell awkward?_ Joey thought after she thanked Red and followed Jake back out to the hay bales. _J – O – E – Y space A – N – D space R – E – D._ Well, at least everyone had the rest of the hay bales to distract them now.

* * *

><p><em>And this is where I make my excuses for having this update be so late. My apologies! Life really does get in the way sometimes. Thankfully after I wrote this chapter I cranked out about a zillion more (okay, like four more). Hopefully I'll be able to update sooner rather than later. Also, I recently found a hilarious description for Red from a random blog called ABC Not Just For Kids. It read: "Red O'Malley (Nathan Phillips) - the sexy stablehand. He's kind and sexy and good at his job, and...and sexy." xD lol!<em>

_Yep, I totally don't own this._


	5. Chapter 5

It was about a week and a half later that Joey finally saw something that confirmed her suspicions about Red and Denise. In fact, she heard something as well, something that was exactly the opposite of what Joey wished she could've heard. The entire exchange had occurred as a result of Max and his fiancee Deborah, a judge, those middle-school girls again, and Denise's presence at the barn on a Thursday.

Joey had been passing by the indoor arena when she saw some strange gathering of people. She backtracked, still holding her pitchfork, and headed in the direction of the anomaly. Joey happened to join the group around the same time Denise did. "What's going on?" Joey asked. Denise asked at the same time, "Is anything wrong?" The two girls looked at each other for a second before both turning back toward the group.

"We're waiting to find out," said Max, looking around with a very confused expression.

"I was just trying to give Deborah her wedding present," Red offered with a shrug. Max looked even more confused, if that was possible.

Deborah, sitting atop a horse, hurriedly explained. "Red generously offered to help me learn how to ride before the wedding. He's teaching me – I've had to take lessons whenever the two of us could squeeze them in. It was supposed to be a secret until we were married."

Max looked utterly delighted. Joey tried not to smile at the goofily happy grin on her boss's face. Suddenly Max's face changed again: he had apparently seen the light. "So that explains why -"

"Why I had to distract you for an hour while Deborah rode," said the blonde middle-school girl. Joey thought her name had been Stevie.

"Yes, by making up a ridiculous story about the grain being bad and emptying the contents of your lunch into the grain buckets to keep me occupied," Max finished, nodding.

Carole, the African-American middle-school girl, piped up. "In the middle of the lesson, the judge arrived."

"Makes sense," said Max.

Joey opened her mouth to ask how the heck that made sense – then she closed it again, thinking that it was probably about to be explained. Carole added, "Only our judge was supposed to be here to certify Red as a Riding Counselor, just like Denise."

"Excuse me?" asked Red.

"I was?" blurted the judge.

Lisa, the last of the middle-school trio, cleared her throat and looked over at Red. "We were trying to get you certified as a Riding Counselor so that Veronica would get off your back and then Max wouldn't believe all the awful things she said."

Joey could understand that. She'd heard half of Veronica's lovely tirades, and she'd also seen Red calmly brush them off. In fact, she'd asked him how he was able to manage it just a couple of days ago. Red said, looking both pleased and embarrassed all at once, "I guess I never appreciated the lengths you three were willing to go in order to help me out."

"Okay, what is going on?" Joey finally asked. Denise in the same moment started to talk to Red. The person nearest Joey happened to be Max, and he turned toward her to explain.

"Deborah and I are getting married today," Max informed her. "Evidently another judge was invited out to test Red, and things got a little…mixed up."

"Oh," said Joey, finally understanding. The judge clearly didn't understand yet though, and she threw her hands in the air, giving up. "Excuse me. I am Judge Emily Stilwell, and just exactly what does this riding certificate have to do with marriage, and exactly who is getting married today?"

"Today? Nobody's getting married today. Max and Deborah are getting married on the twenty-seventh," Stevie said.

"We are?" asked Deborah.

"You're not?" Stevie asked back.

"No, we're definitely getting married today," Max said slowly, looking as if he was beginning to question it himself.

"Then who is marrying Redford O'Malley?" the judge demanded, clearly still confused.

Joey tried not to laugh. Was his full name really Redford? That was awful. "Redford?" she queried, unable to keep the smile out of her voice.

"If you mean Red," said Denise, "then that would be me, but probably not for a couple of years and certainly not until Red gets up the guts to ask me." And she looked directly at Joey as she took Red's hand. Joey waited for a couple of seconds, hoping against hope that Red would pull away and ask Denise what the heck are you doing, woman? Instead, Red just blushed, looking at the ground.

That was enough for Joey. Feeling as though she'd just been kicked in the stomach, she excused herself as elegantly as she could manage, and walked back toward the barn, clutching the pitchfork tightly. She could feel Denise's eyes on her back the entire way in. It was an incredibly tempting idea to smack Denise upside the head with the handle of the pitchfork, but that probably would not endear her to anyone, especially Red.

Joey continued with her work, unsure of what she could do. She had a nasty feeling that she would be stuck here now, with Red and Denise, both clearly very happy with each other. Denise hadn't been planning on fighting Joey for Red; Denise had been jealous of Joey and Red, even though there had been absolutely nothing between them save for a variety of ridiculously awkward moments.

That was all their relationship would be, Joey realized dully. While Denise and Red went on and married each other, Joey would be stuck in the background, forced to watch them lead their happy lives together until she graduated from Whitmire. It occurred to her, with Whitmire in mind, that she could quite possibly drop out and put off college for another year.

Unfortunately, her enrollment at Whitmire was on account of a scholarship. If Joey dropped out, she'd lose the scholarship, and then where would she be? So unless she decided to leave behind the idea of college until she had enough money to enroll herself, which would most certainly not be for a very long time, then she was stuck here with Denise and Red.

She could quit her job here, of course. Then where would she go for money? Joey would be stuck looking for a job from McDonald's or Starbucks or Burger King. She'd had a job at a fast food place once before and she had hated every second of it. Besides, she had a feeling that Pine Hollow paid better than McDonald's would.

Great. Apparently Joey was stuck between a rock and a hard place again, though this time it was more like she was between a massive boulder and a cement road. It was not a good place to be, but she was going to have to deal with it. When school finally started in September, maybe then she wouldn't have to be here and see Red and Denise so often. Unfortunately, though, every time she even saw Pine Hollow, she would remember why she was so happy to avoid it.

Joey stabbed a clump of dirty sawdust with the pitchfork, grumbling to herself. Why did nothing work out the way it was supposed to? She thought maybe God was trying to teach her something, like humility or patience or that she should go back to church. Then again, it could just be that she was a magnet for crappy luck.

_Dear Lord,_ Joey thought, _why the heck is this happening to me? Have I committed any mortal sins lately? I admit I haven't been to church as often as I should be going, but I haven't totally forgotten You, have I? Great, now I sound arrogant, too. Please forgive me for whatever I did to offend You and please somehow make this work out more nicely than it is right now. Thanks for listening to my sinful self. Amen._

"Hey, Joey?"

"God?" Joey blurted, looking up. She caught sight of Red lingering in the doorway to the stall. "Oh, it's just you," she muttered, going back to stabbing the clump with more fervor. "What is it? Got another job for me to do?"

Red frowned at her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just effing dandy. Thanks for caring." Joey tried to calm herself down. After all, it wasn't his fault that he was dating someone that wasn't her. Besides, Red and Denise had probably been going out even before Joey arrived. _Dear shit,_ thought Joey, _have they been dating for, like, _years_?_ The thought was ludicrously alarming.

Joey finally looked over at Red. He came across as very unsure of himself – and very cute. Who was she kidding? The guy was hot, and there was no way that he was ever going to think the same of her. It was practically painful to look at him now. "Sorry for snapping," mumbled Joey, going back to the clump. "I'm fine."

"You're not acting like it."

Why did he have to be so thoughtful? "Look, you really need to listen to me because I'm telling you the truth. I mean this. I'm okay." Joey both hoped and didn't hope that Red had gotten the song reference. If he did, that was one more thing they had in common. It also meant he would realize that she really was not okay. If he didn't, he would think she really was okay and move on with life.

Red snorted and folded his arms. "Trust me, I'm not okay?"

"Congratulations, you get a gold star."

"Just tell me if it was something I did."

Joey sighed. She really couldn't blame him for being cute and unavailable. She finally scooped up the clump with the pitchfork and turned to dump it in the bucket. "You're fine." _No, you really are_ fine_! Oh, shut up, Joey._ "I just have a lot of crap to deal with."

Red snickered. "Literally."

"Very funny."

He grinned crookedly for a few more seconds. Eventually Red unfolded his arms and started to swing them back and forth. Joey half-expected him to start whistling. "Well, have fun," he told her before walking off, shoving his hands into his pockets. Joey watched him go. Denise was truly one lucky lady.

* * *

><p><em>Don't you worry none, Joey ain't givin' up that easy. And yes, the dialogue from the beginning of this chapter was basically all from the book <em>Stable Groom_. Also, it would be really great if someone could, y'know, review. Thanks! :)_

_And no, I still don't own this._


	6. Chapter 6

Three or four days after Joey's ultimate revelation, she received a very strange letter. She'd been sitting in her kitchen toweling her hair dry as she went through her mail. She threw out the junk mail and put aside the stuff she actually needed – and then she reached the odd one. It had been simply addressed to her, from a Jason Randall. She opened it, curious, and discovered a very long typed letter. She started reading:

_Hello. When I was seven years old, my parents divorced. Up until that point I had been the only beloved boy of a family of girls. Unfortunately, after my parents divorced, my mother remarried, and I was soon being forced to take care of twin baby boys._

"What the hell?" Joey asked aloud. She skipped to the end of the letter, which happened to be three pages crammed with tiny font later:

_And all this must prove to you, dear reader, that I am worthy of being your man. Please consider contacting me if you would like to meet me in person._

Joey laughed disbelievingly. Had someone randomly sent out letters to every unmarried person in the apartment complex? She decided that this was the most likely case and tossed it into the trash can along with the junk mail. _Wow,_ she thought, shaking her head. _People are getting really desperate these days._ And she went about with her business, the strange letter soon disappearing from her mind completely.

A couple of days later, she received another letter. And then another, and then another. All of them were horrifyingly desperate, and unfortunately amusing. Joey was honestly considering getting some sort of restraining order on her address or something. It was at Pine Hollow that she finally figured out what the heck was going on.

Denise, who had been hanging around the barn a lot more lately, was reading a newspaper while passing Joey. Joey, after trying to force down the original anger she usually felt at seeing Denise, quickly hurried up to walk alongside her. "Hey, Denise," said Joey, trying to sound friendly. "What's that you're reading?"

"The newspaper," Denise said slowly, clearly wondering what was going on in Joey's mind.

"That's awesome – you wouldn't mind if I saw the personal ads section, would you?"

Denise narrowed her eyes at Joey. "Whatever," she finally decided aloud. She tossed her hair before handing Joey the section she'd asked for.

"Thanks so much," Joey gushed, giving Denise a full-on megawatt smile. Denise gave Joey a look that obviously said _I don't know what your problem is right now, woman, after all, aren't we supposed to be enemies?_ Joey shrugged one shoulder in response and retreated to the tack room to check over the personal ads.

She leaned back against one of the counters and quickly skimmed the ads. They were mostly for things like used cars – there were even a couple for horses that needed to be sold. The most interesting part to Joey was the entire column of ads for single people. Joey read through them, keeping in mind that everybody usually kept it anonymous and had the Post Office forward all the mail to their addresses:

_Single professional. Enjoys reading French philosophers, playing violin, and going to the cinema. Looking for someone to spend her time with._

_Single man. Enjoys margaritas, long walks on the beach, and hot tubs. Good with kids. Looking for someone to make him happy. Rich._

Joey scanned them with narrowed eyes, trying to figure out if her brother had put an ad for her in there as a joke. That, of course, was the most likely occurrence. Joey hadn't put an ad up for herself in there, and she seriously doubted anyone else would do that for her. Or was it more appropriate to say _to_ her?

She finally located the ad that was most likely for her. It was quite sloppy, which stank of practical joke:

_Wonderful single lady. Great with kids, loves animals, and is looking for her soulmate. Please contact the Post Office if you're interested (and male)._

"Wow," Joey muttered, folding the newspaper section back up. She made a mental note to call Sam the second she had the opportunity. She shook her head, thinking of all the unfortunate men that thought they had a wonderful single lady coming for them, and happened to look up.

The three middle-school girls were standing around the doorway awkwardly. "Hey," said Stevie brazenly. "How's it going?"

"Pretty okay," said Joey, suddenly suspicious.

"That's cool," said Stevie. "What's that you're reading?"

"A newspaper." Joey frowned good-naturedly at the girls. Carole and Lisa seemed to be particularly giggly today. "Now, none of you would happen to know why I've been getting weird letters from desperate single men lately, would you?"

Stevie shook her head. She opened her mouth to say something – but Carole interrupted, looking rather distraught. "We were only trying to help, really," she blurted, earning a scowl from Stevie. "We saw that you've been really down lately and thought maybe you needed a man in your life."

Joey laughed. "Maybe I needed a man in my life?" Well, maybe she did, but it certainly wasn't the type of man these ads usually drew. The man she needed in her life was unavailable. "Thanks but no thanks. I'm really doing fine."

Stevie began to protest, but stopped herself. "Hold on," she said, "does that mean you've already got someone?"

"Not at the moment, but -"

"In that case, we could totally help you out," said Stevie excitedly. Lisa gave Joey a look that said something along the lines of _I'm so sorry but you are about to be subjected to the plot of a madwoman._ "We all know a ton of people. Isn't that right, guys?"

"It didn't really work out last time," Carole said hesitantly.

_Oh dear,_ thought Joey. "Last time?"

"Yeah," said Stevie with no qualms about it. "We thought Max was getting old and lonely so we invited out a ton of eligible women to a Fourth of July picnic. We ended up accidentally splitting up Max and the woman he was dating. They're married now though, so it kinda worked out in the end."

Lisa finally piped up. "Of course, we won't try and help if you don't want us to." She elbowed Stevie as if trying to make her agree.

Joey thought about it for a moment. There really was no harm, was there? It would just be meeting a bunch of guys until she located one that was a suitable replacement for Red. Joey tried not to wince at her next thought – _nobody can replace Red._ She finally shrugged, thinking maybe this could make her job a little more enjoyable. "Sure. I don't mind. Just don't do anything without asking me first, okay?"

"Great!" burst Stevie. "I know a few people because of my brothers – hold on, how old are you?"

"Stevie!" Carole reprimanded, giving Joey an apologetic look.

"It's fine," said Joey, shrugging again. "I'm nineteen. Anyone up to twenty-five would be totally fine with me."

"Perfect!" Stevie exclaimed. Joey noticed that Stevie was a rather explosively happy person. "Okay, well, we'll start trying to meet people and have them stop by Pine Hollow. Is that cool?"

"Sure," said Joey. Why not go all out? "That'd be awesome."

And that was the reason that a variety of random people began to show up at Pine Hollow with zero thoughts for the horses.

* * *

><p><em>My mom said she actually put an ad in the paper a long time ago like these and received a ton of weird letters, haha. That's where I got this idea. :) No offense if you met your husband or your wife through an ad!<em>

_I still really don't own this._


	7. Chapter 7

The first bachelor Stevie, Carole, and Lisa evidently thought suitable showed up at Pine Hollow on a Sunday, the least-busy day of the week. Denise, thankfully, had yet to arrive today, so Joey didn't have to pretend to be happy to show Denise she was really okay with not scoring Red; it was also unthankfully, as it meant that Red hung around Joey more often than when Denise was around to distract him.

Max was in the office with Mrs. Reg when a Mini Cooper pulled up. _Oh,_ thought Joey, _so he's got a lot of money, too._ And then she realized that she probably looked awful. _Those girls had better start warning me!_

She handed her pitchfork to Red, who stood there looking confused while holding a pitchfork in each hand. Joey didn't bother pausing to explain to him. She hurried to the bathroom, where she pulled her hair out of her elastic and shook it out. It took her a minute to make it look halfway decent. It was a little off, she thought, but it was better than keeping it in the elastic.

Joey quickly washed her face, hopefully getting off most of the dirt, before walking back into the barn aisle. Red was talking to the visitor from the Mini Cooper. Mini Cooper looked like the tortured artist type, with dark hair, a grey beanie, and hazel eyes. His outfit consisted mostly of black. He was definitely cute, but it was hard to tell how he'd be when he was standing next to Red.

"Oh, hey," Mini Cooper said as Joey approached. "You're Joey Redwood, right?" Mini Cooper was rapidly earning points. He was British, too. He held his hand out toward Joey, who smiled and nodded as she shook the proffered hand. "I was just talking to this bloke Red here."

"Yep," said Red. Joey noted with a hint of guilty pleasure that he was looking both confused and irritable. "Well, I'm off to finish the stalls. Joey, don't take too long, there are a lot left."

"Thanks, Red," said Joey, looking at Mini Cooper. Mini Cooper happily looked back. As Red turned away and shuffled back to clean more stalls, Joey said, "So, what's your name, Mini Cooper?"

He smiled crookedly. "Jason Randall."

Joey hesitated. "Your parents didn't divorce when you were seven, did they?"

Jason Randall looked confused. "How'd you know?"

And that was the end of that.

After Joey very politely turned down poor Jason Randall, she headed back down to where Red was cleaning stalls, pulling her hair back into its elastic on the way. She picked up her pitchfork from where Red had leaned it against the wall.

"Who was that?" Red asked. He still sounded irritable.

Joey shrugged, playing it cool. "Just somebody that wanted to meet me," she said. "He was a pretty nice guy."

"I didn't think so," Red countered. "He seemed like a jerk to me."

"Oh? How come?"

"I don't know, he just did."

Joey tried not to laugh. Either Red was seriously just trying to look out for her safety as a platonic friend, or he was getting jealous. She said nothing else to Red and went back to cleaning stalls with much more gusto. She was really starting to like this job a lot.

The next "suitable" bachelor turned out to be Stevie's literature teacher. He was young and gangly and looked as though he'd just graduated from high school. When he arrived, Denise had been around, so Red wasn't there to witness the meeting. Joey realized, after meeting Neil Warner officially, that this was a very good thing. She even wished she hadn't witnessed the meeting.

Every time Joey tried to get a word in edgewise, Neil would start talking about something else. He was ridiculously awkward socially. In fact, Joey had little doubt that he had no idea what he was even doing here. She really wished she could sit in on one of his literature classes, to see if the kids were making fun of him to his face; they definitely would be making fun of him. Poor Neil Warner left no doubt in Joey's mind.

Joey was immensely grateful that she was finally able to tell him to get lost (in nicer words, of course). When she returned to taking a hay bale down from the hayloft, Denise stopped her at the bottom of the ladder. "Who was that you were just talking to?" Denise asked.

"Just a guy I know," Joey said offhandedly. "Why? Think he was cute?"

"Ugh, no," Denise snapped. Without explanation for her random question, she stalked off. Denise was met by a group of students a few feet away. Joey reflected that she was probably the only one in all of Pine Hollow that disliked Denise McCaskill. At least, she thought, she had a legitimate reason to be hating.

Throughout the next week – the second-to-last week of June – Joey met several more eligible bachelors. They seemed to be growing worse and worse as time went on. Joey was about to give up and tell the girls to stop inviting people out, deciding she could live with heartache forever and maybe become a nun, when Patrick James showed up.

Denise had just jumped the barn ship, which meant Red had just walked over to join Joey in the tack room. They'd had an awkward conversation (which was normal) and then Carole had rushed in and blurted, "Joey! He's here!" Joey had politely excused herself and exited the room, sparing Red a glance on her way out to determine how he felt about yet another random suitor. He looked fairly ruffled, but went back to his tack-cleaning without much of a change in him.

Joey didn't bother taking her hair down, as she suspected this guy would be worse than the last one (the last one had been Atticus Finchley; apparently he had parents that were classic literature buffs, and he had wasted no time in letting Joey know he was one, too). However, when she reached the parking lot, she saw a miraculously normal-looking guy leaning against the driver's side door of a nice, normal pickup truck.

"Hey," said Joey, heading toward him. "I'm Joey Redwood."

"Patrick James," he answered, looking up at her. His eyes were two different colors – green and blue – and was that an accent Joey detected? He held out a suntanned hand, smiling. "It's nice to meet you, Joey. Lisa told me a lot about you."

_Thank you, Lisa,_ Joey thought. "Only good things, I hope," Joey said, shaking his hand.

Patrick withdrew his hand and then shoved his fists into the pockets of his jeans. That was another great thing about him: he had dressed as though he'd actually known he was going to a barn. That was more than Joey could say for the rest of the idiots that had showed up. "Come on, there can't be anything bad about you," he said with a flirty grin.

Joey laughed. "I'm sure you'll find out one way or another," she answered flippantly. "So. Tell me a little about yourself."

"I'm originally from Sydney, Australia," said Patrick, holding up a finger for every piece of information he gave Joey; "I'm a sophomore at Whitmire Academy, I play the guitar, I listen to rock music, I like reading, and I own a horse here." He grinned widely. "Now it's your turn, Joey."

She loved hearing him say her name. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a little logical voice said, _This guy is too good to be true. Don't trust him yet._ There was a reason, though, the logical voice in her head was so little: she hardly ever listened to it. "Really? You own a horse here? Which one?"

"Ah-ah," was his response. "Six things."

"Oh, all right. I'm from Charleston, South Carolina, I'm a freshman at Whitmire, I listen to rock music, I love reading, I name pretty much everything, and I love rain. Now, which horse do you own?"

Yeah, Patrick was pretty much perfect. After they chatted for a while longer, Joey discovered that Patrick owned the dressage horse Lucy; and then they set up an actual date for Friday, which happened to be the next day. The second Patrick pulled out of the Pine Hollow parking lot, Carole, Lisa, and Stevie rushed out of the indoor arena.

"We heard everything!" Stevie exclaimed. "He's perfect for you!"

Joey nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he really is," she admitted. "You three are terrific." She gave the three of them a group hug, thanked them again, and headed back into the barn, bouncing a little as she walked. She reentered the tack room and gave Red a big grin. "Hey, Red," she said, walking over to join him in finishing up the tack. "How are things going in here?"

"You just met another guy, didn't you," was Red's response.

Joey paused. "So what if I did?"

"What's his name?"

"Red." He finally looked directly at her with his stormy-grey eyes. "Why the heck do you care?"

He shrugged lopsidedly and mumbled something along the lines of _just curious_. Joey rather thought that if Red was going to act like a jealous idiot all the time, she was never going to be able to win. When she liked Red, he was unavailable. When she liked someone else, he got all jealous. There were only three words that Joey could think of to describe the situation: _what the heck?_

* * *

><p><em>Oh, I had fun thinking of these guys! ;D I was going to make the Jason Randall guy the guy Joey ended up liking, but then I decided to pull that little twist-eroo. Guess where I came up with Neil Warner? Anybody seen <em>Dirty Dancing_? Yep, based on that Neil. And a teacher from my school that I really don't like, haha._

_*EDIT: Sorry if I made it seem like it was bad that Jason's parents got divorced. I was referring to the last chapter in which Joey received the letter detailing the guy's whole life story. She asked him that to see if he was the same guy that sent the letter._

_Don't own._


	8. Chapter 8

Friday afternoon, Joey was, of course, at Pine Hollow. She wasn't sure whether she was excited or nervous. Judging by how well everything had gone the day before, she thought it would be more appropriate for her to be excited. Unfortunately, Red seemed to be doing everything to keep Joey from being happy. He'd set her on feeding that morning, when he knew that it would take her a really long time to figure out what to give each horse, and every time he saw her he would tell her the next job that had to be done, reminding her that there was no rest for the weary.

Finally Joey tracked Red down. He was in the middle of turning out a couple of the horses. Joey waited outside the gate until he was done, and the second he turned around, Joey demanded: "What the heck is your problem?"

"Excuse me?" Red answered, closing the gate behind himself. "What are you talking about?"

"You're trying to make it as hard as possible for me to actually be happy today," Joey snapped. "Why'd you make me feed the horses this morning?"

Red snorted, but he wouldn't look Joey head-on. "Because they needed to be fed. _Somebody_ needs to stop jumping to conclusions."

"Look, Red," said Joey, "if I really am jumping to conclusions, tell me that straight to my face."

Joey watched Red expectantly, waiting. There were a lot of great things about him, like his generosity, his all-around niceness, and his looks, but Joey was not about to put up with random crap because he felt like angsting like a seventh-grade boy.

Red finally sighed and turned toward Joey. "I'm sorry for being rude," he said, ducking his head. "It's just…I have a lot on my mind right now."

"Okay," said Joey, releasing a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "And I'm sorry for snapping at you. Just next time you have random crap to deal with, don't take it out on me, okay?"

Red looked like he was about to say something else, but he restrained himself with what seemed to be a large amount of willpower. He smiled awkwardly at Joey, and the two of them headed back toward the barn.

After that, things went a little more smoothly wherever Red was involved. Of course, things could never really go smoothly; every time she saw Red, all she could picture was Denise grabbing his hand and staring directly at her as she pretty much said she and Red were going to be married. And every time Joey thought of that, she felt like she'd been kicked in the stomach again.

She tried to distract herself by focusing on Patrick and the upcoming date. This was rather hard – who was she kidding? It was Mission Impossible. Without Tom Cruise, it just couldn't be done. Joey really hated how everything was turning out. There was a great guy out there seriously just waiting for her, and here she was, losing sleep over Red. Denise deserved a great guy too, and that great guy was Red; so why did Joey hate it so freaking much?

Maybe because it was like watching a train wreck.

About an hour before Joey was about to take off to go home and get ready for her date, Red received a phone call. Joey wasn't usually much of an eavesdropper, but Red was in the stall directly beside the one she was in, so she really couldn't help it. She could only hear Red's side of the conversation: unfortunately his phone wasn't ridiculously loud like most phones. The conversation sounded quite tempestuous. It ended in Red barking, "Fine, then, go ahead and see if I care!" And then he snapped his phone shut.

Joey tried not to sound hopeful when she asked, "Was that Denise?"

"Yes," Red grumbled back. Joey glanced into his stall. He was running one of his hands through his dark messy hair, pausing to tug on it with the same hand. "She was just asking if it was okay for…" He suddenly stopped and looked at Joey, who looked back, eyebrows raised. "You know what? Never mind."

With that, he went back to cleaning, now dumping the manure into his bucket with more gusto. Joey shrugged to herself. Maybe this was the beginning (middle?) of a beautiful relationship for Denise and Red. Joey really could barely resist laughing at herself. Beautiful? Yeah, right.

Joey finished up the stalls on one side of the barn and headed out, only after telling Red that she was jumping ship a little early today. She didn't tell him what she was doing, but he seemed incredibly annoyed about it anyway. Joey really wanted to ask him if he was on his monthly, but she restrained herself.

She hurried back to her apartment and showered, afterwards changing into a casual dress and her cowboy boots. These boots were built to show off, not actually wear to a barn. Once Joey was satisfied with her appearance – and she'd put up her hair – she drove out to the restaurant she and Patrick had planned on going to.

Joey was the first there. She asked for a table for two in the non-smoking section and soon found herself sitting there, awkwardly looking at the menu, wondering what the heck was taking Patrick so long. She finally decided that he was probably just stuck in traffic on his way there and settled for checking her phone from time to time.

_Ten minutes late._ The waitress kept coming back and asking Joey what she wanted. Joey finally gave in and asked for a water. The waitress gave her a pitying look and walked off to get the water.

_Fifteen._ The waitress returned with the glass of water and asked Joey if she'd like to wait or go ahead and order. Joey declined politely and said she'd wait. The waitress looked as though she knew exactly what Joey was going through. Joey tried to pretend that she wasn't going through anything at all.

_Twenty._ The waitress told her that she'd have to order something or she'd be kicked out. Joey ordered an entrée and called her brother for something to do.

_Twenty-five._ Joey finished talking to her brother, who was all for coming up and kicking some Patrick James ass, and ate her food. She asked the waitress what the waitress would do if she was in the same situation, because the waitress seemed to have a story about it. The waitress sat down across from her and dropped her notepad on the table.

"Well, honey," said the waitress, whose nametag read _Sophia_, "let me just tell you the story." Sophia then proceeded to explain how she had been crushing on the same guy for over a year and after finally getting asked out by him, had met him at his favorite restaurant, which turned out to be a Hooters. She had left before even heading in. However, when asked for a second chance, she gave him one. That was when she'd gone to a nicer restaurant and been stood up. "So you see," Sophia concluded, "Men make no sense at all. It's better to wait until we find one that's got the balls to fight for us."

Joey laughed. "It certainly seems as though that would be the best idea." She checked her phone. "Dear shit, now he's forty-five minutes late. I don't think he's going to show."

"Good," said Sophia. "If he showed his ugly mug around here I'd have to kick his ass for ya." She and Joey exchanged grins, and Sophia stood up. "Well, you wanna pay and take off? At least you gave yourself a nice dinner, right?"

"That's a nice way of looking at it," Joey said with a nod. "How much is it?"

"Hold on and I'll let you know."

So when Joey got up to leave the restaurant, all she'd gotten from the "date" was the fact that Patrick James was a skunk, nice motherly waitresses weren't just clichés from TV, and she really should have decided to like Red whether he was available or not. There had to be a learning curve. Maybe it was that she should always like the guys that were clearly flawed, because then she wouldn't be stuck with the guys that seemed nice but ended up the worst.

Joey was crossing the back of the restaurant for a last-minute trip to the bathroom when she saw them.

She couldn't help herself. Joey marched up to the table for two in the smoking section and demanded, "What the hell are you two doing?"

Patrick and Denise looked up at her, both of them appearing like deer caught in headlights. "We're on a date," said Denise snidely. "What does it look like we're doing?"

Joey stared at her for a second, thinking, _what the *%!#$?_ Finally she smiled. "Denise," she said slowly, "you are a wonderful person." She looked at Patrick, who appeared quite astonished. "Patrick, please, go out with her some more. The two of you deserve each other."

Before leaving, Joey paused by the front, where Sophia was standing. "What's up, honey?" Sophia asked – and after Joey explained, Sophia had a look of grim determination on her face. She told Joey to hold on for a minute and walked off.

Joey waited awkwardly in the front, glaring from time to time in the direction of Patrick and Denise. _Little scumbags _do_ deserve each other,_ she thought. Joey was about to tell another waitress to tell Sophia goodbye for her, ready to leave, when she saw Sophia emerge from the back with a massive plateful of spaghetti.

Sophia began to wend her way expertly through the tables. She stopped right in front of Patrick and Denise's – and after a second of what appeared to be friendly conversation, Sophia "accidentally" dumped half the plate onto Denise's head. She then proceeded to struggle to keep the plate upright and dumped the other half into Patrick's lap.

Before saying anything more to Denise and Patrick, Sophia turned around and winked at Joey. Joey laughed disbelievingly, clapped silently for Sophia, and waved goodbye. _You rock,_ she mouthed. Sophia gave a little curtsy and nodded with a smirk as if to say _I know it._ Joey snickered and headed out of the restaurant into the cool night air.

Joey wasn't done yet though. She checked her phone for the time – it was only nine o'clock. She had no doubt that Red would still be up and about at Pine Hollow. Now was as good a time as any to tell him what his girlfriend was up to.

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><p><em>I loved writing this, I really did. ;) The next chapter's the last one. Short story, I know.<em>

_Don't own._


	9. Chapter 9

Pine Hollow was alarmingly quiet. Joey knew all the horses would be out for the night by now, so that explained the lack of whinnying, but it was a little odd that nobody was hanging around like usual. Joey parked out front, just where the light from the barn ended – and after taking a deep breath, she locked her car and headed inside.

"Hello?" Joey called as she walked in. Most of the lights were on, but nobody was in sight. She hesitated before calling out again. "Is anyone here?"

"Joey?"

Red poked his head around the door at the end of the barn. Joey sighed and approached him, full of determination. "What are you doing here?" he added, just before he stepped around the corner; and Joey stopped.

"I think the better question here is," Joey answered, "what are you doing shirtless?" Not that she minded, of course. In fact, the longer she looked, the more all she could think was _abs. Who the heck is Taylor Lautner? Oh my Voldemort, he's got _abs_!_ Seriously, what had Sophia put in her water at that stupid restaurant? Vodka? That was _so_ illegal. Ah, yes, the restaurant…

"Oh yeah," said Red, glancing down as if it was just dawning on him that he was half-naked. He looked back up, reddening quickly. "Er, sorry about that, I was moving the sawdust pile back there. And what are you doing here all dressed up?"

"Don't be apologizing," said Joey, wondering what dressed up meant for him. She'd taken her hair down in the car and it was messily curling and frizzing all over the place. That didn't sound quite dressed up to her. "I just came from my date, at which I happily enjoyed an entrée, a glass of water, and a nice long chat with the waitress." She walked toward Red, not really desiring to shout halfway down the barn hallway in order for him to hear her. "But there's gotta be a learning curve, right?"

"He stood you up?" Red asked, also approaching Joey. She nodded. "Son of a bitch," he muttered.

Joey stopped. "Did you just curse?"

"…maybe."

"Wow," said Joey, raising her eyebrows. "You really don't like that dude. I have never heard you curse and I have now known you for practically a month and a half."

Red shrugged a little sheepishly. "Yeah, well." He furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head slightly in an adorably quizzical way. "What are you doing back here, anyway? Did you just come to tell me that?"

"Nope," said Joey. "You may not like it, but I came to tell you that your girlfriend was on a date with the guy that stood me up in the same damn restaurant."

Red opened and closed his mouth several times, looking like a fish out of water. Finally he said: "Oh my God. She was serious."

"Hey, did you just hear that?"

Red looked at Joey, clearly confused. "Hear what?"

"That huge crack."

"Uh, no."

"I think it was the sound of a Commandment breaking."

It took Red a minute to figure it out, but when he did, he laughed. "I always forget that one," he said, shaking his head. "That one Commandment, I mean. That's probably why everything always goes wrong for me."

Joey shrugged. "Everything pretty much goes wrong for everyone around here, apparently."

"Maybe I'm just a bad luck charm."

"Okay, now that is something I seriously doubt." Joey recalled what Red had been saying before she'd cracked her joke. **(1)** "What did you mean earlier when you said she was serious?"

Red sighed. "Do you remember when I was talking to Denise on the phone?" Joey nodded attentively. "She was asking me if we had an 'open relationship' and if we were allowed to 'see other people' at the same time we were dating."

Joey cringed. "Ouch," she said, shaking her head. "She really took that Justin Timberlake friends with benefits movie way too seriously." Joey hesitated before asking her next question: "So does that mean she basically broke up with you?"

"No," said Red flatly.

"I don't mean to pry…" Joey began, rocking back and forth on her heels, "…okay, I really do mean to pry, but are you going to break up with her?"

"Of course!" Red exclaimed as if this was an obvious fact. "She was really great at first, but then she started coming by practically every day and getting all clingy, and then she was a total bitch to you for no reason, and then she goes asking me if she's allowed to see other people, and then she actually _does_ it! How stupid could a person get?"

Joey found that she was grinning hugely. She tried to wipe the stupid smile off her face, but it was pretty hard. Red had actually _noticed_ how mean Denise had been to her. For some reason this made her want to melt to the floor in a puddle of Joey. _Wow,_ Joey thought when she realized how sappy she was feeling. _This is completely cliché. What is this, one of those unknown Disney movies they air in the middle of the night?_

"What are you smiling about?" asked Red.

"Nothing," said Joey, trying to shrug it off.

"It sure doesn't seem like nothing to me."

Joey had to work, but she managed to lose the silly grin. "Hey, guess what? At the restaurant, that really nice waitress I mentioned earlier – I told her about the whole Denise and Patrick thing, and you'll never guess what she did."

Red smiled faintly. "What?" He hooked his thumbs through his belt loops. For some reason this brought Joey's attention back to the fact that he was shirtless, and she was momentarily distracted, her mind going fuzzy for a second due to the cobwebby hormones trying to take over.

She realized that she'd let his question relax for a little too long and tried to quickly make up for it. "So she tells me to wait in the front, right, so I do. She goes to the back then walks back out with this massive plate of spaghetti. Then she walks over to Denise and Patrick's table and after saying something or other to them, she dumps half the plate on Denise's head. I don't know how she did it, but then she dumped the rest of the plate in Patrick's lap."

Red laughed. He didn't just snicker, he full-out belly-laughed. Joey wondered if Sophia had somehow snuck vodka into Red's water too. "Okay, it's not that funny," she said, seriously beginning to wonder about Red's sanity.

"Yes it is!" he gasped back. "It's hysterical!"

Joey stared at him for a second, practically rolling on the floor, and then she started to laugh. She couldn't help herself. Red's laughing was downright hilarious in itself. It was ludicrously mismatched, going up and down and up and down in pitch. Soon enough, both of them were howling, and neither of them really knew why.

They both stopped laughing around the same time, gasping for air. "Why is that so funny?" Red asked, sounding as if he'd just finished a triathlon without having practiced beforehand.

"I have no idea," Joey answered.

The pair of them stood there and looked at each other for a second, the smiles fading from their faces. Red ducked his head shyly. "You know," he said, so quietly that Joey had to strain to hear him, "I wouldn't have stood you up."

"And I wouldn't have assumed you'd say yes to being friends with benefits," Joey said with a sigh. "Really shows that we know how to judge people, right?"

Red snorted. Silence settled over them for a second. Joey finally asked, "So do you want help with that sawdust pile back there?"

As if this reminded him, Red looked down again, following that up with another blush. "Yeah, that'd be great." He frowned. "But aren't you going to get your dress and your shoes all nasty?"

"Who the hell cares?" was Joey's response. "It's not like I'm going on a date." She grinned crookedly in Red's direction, and he returned the look. They headed toward the back of the barn, Joey wondering what the heck she could possibly say now. A timely interruption saved her from having to say anything at all.

None other than Denise McCaskill appeared in the front of the stable, hands on her hips and spaghetti on her shirt. "Red, I have to talk to – what are _you_ doing here, Redwood?"

Red and Joey stopped walking and looked at each other. It was as if they were sharing some inside joke. Denise clearly did not appreciate this look that they shared, because she quickly added, "And Red, why are you shirtless?"

"Hi, Denise," said Red and Joey at the same time. Joey gave Red the floor.

"Look, Denise, Joey just showed up to tell me about you and some Patrick guy at a restaurant," said Red pointedly. "And I have something to talk to you about first. I don't know what you thought, but I really don't appreciate it when you randomly run around while still going out with me and date other guys." Denise started to say something, but Red cut her off. "I'm not done yet. Denise, I'm officially breaking up with you."

It was Denise's turn to look like a fish out of water. Finally she managed, "Good thing I came here to tell you the same thing." She sneered at Joey before whirling around and storming back outside. "Have a nice rest of your life, Redford O'Malley!"

Joey said the first thing that came to her, which happened to be, "Your name is really Redford?"

"Yup."

"Oh my."

Red nodded slowly. He looked as if he didn't know what to do with himself. "Well," he said with a heavy sigh, "I guess it's good that that's over and done with." He turned around rather mechanically and started toward the back of the barn again, hands crammed into the pockets of his jeans. Joey followed, unsure of herself now that Red was completely and totally available.

Instead of saying or doing anything, though, Joey got to work, helping him move the sawdust pile. It took a little over an hour to finish with the both of them at it. If Joey hadn't shown up at Pine Hollow, not only would Red maybe not have broken up with Denise, he also might have been working until eleven or twelve.

When they were finished, Joey was pretty much coated in sawdust. She looked down at herself. "Well," she said sarcastically, "I bet I just look wonderful." She started to pick sawdust out of her hair with a little sigh.

"You do," said Red unexpectedly. Joey glanced over at him; predictably, he blushed. Joey smiled at him a little shyly.

"It won't take you long to get over Denise, will it?" Joey half-asked and half-mumbled to the ground.

"I don't know," said Red. He sounded quite thoughtful about it. "How long did it take you to get over Patrick?"

"About forty-five minutes."

"You know," Red said, nodding to himself, "I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I kind of got over Denise a long time ago. I think I've passed my forty-five minute time limit."

"That explains a lot," Joey admitted. Red looked over at her, confused. "I mean, well, we've been blushing at each other practically since my first day at this job. I don't think you've been exactly hoping to accomplish all of Denise's hopes and dreams."

Red winced. "That obvious?"

"I might not have noticed it until right now, but now that I think about it, kinda," Joey said. She glanced at Red, who happened to be glancing at her at the same time. "I guess it couldn't have been too obvious if I didn't notice it, but, well, you know what I mean." She began to pick shreds of sawdust out of her hair again, for lack of anything else to do. To her surprise, Red stepped over and started to help her.

They both worked at pulling sawdust out of her hair for a few minutes in silence. For the first time Joey noticed that Red somehow managed to be taller than her even though she had heeled boots on. And then Joey realized that she'd stopped moving and was just standing there staring at Red, who was staring back in slight puzzlement.

"Umm, sorry," Joey stammered awkwardly, blushing.

"I'm not," said Red, uncharacteristically brazen. And then, of all the things that he could have done, he took her hand, tucked a stray curl behind her ear, and kissed her.

Joey was surprised, but it was a very, very pleasant surprise. The kiss was pretty much perfect by her standards. It was soft and gentle and ridiculously sweet. His hands didn't wander and he didn't try to stuff his tongue down her throat. Yeah, it was perfect.

"Well," said Joey when Red pulled back, "that was pleasantly unexpected." The pair of them grinned at each other. "See you at work tomorrow?"

"Hope to see you afterwards, too."

Okay, so maybe sometimes things really did work out.

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><p><strong>(1)<strong> Hahaha, I only realized after I typed this that it was a bad pun! ;D She "cracked" a joke! Haha, I fail! ;P

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><p><em>And that, my friends, is the end! Yeah, I know I suck at endings. That's probably because I hardly ever finish anything so I haven't got much practice with writing good endings. Anybody got any ending-writing tips? Also, yes, I do realize that this chapter is pretty darn cliche, but that's what makes it cute, right? ;) Thank you for reading my fanfic! :)<em>

_I will never, ever own _Saddle Club_, not in this lifetime or the next. I don't even own it on Planet Stori, and that's my own freakin' planet!_


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